Items tagged with round-up
Today we are going to take a look at three popular Intel Z270-based motherboards targeted at power users and gamers, produced by enthusiast favorites Gigabyte, ASUS and MSI. The three boards we've rounded-up here cover a wide range of price points. The Gigabyte Aorus Z270X-Gaming K5 and ASUS ROG STRIX Z270F Gaming boards represent more mainstream segments, while the MSI Z270 XPOWER Gaming Titanium targets the ultra high-end. Although AMD's powerful Threadripper processors and Intel's upcoming 18-Core Skylake-X behemoth have gotten the lion's share of attention lately, more mainstream processors like Intel's Kaby Lake-based Core i7s and Core i5s sell in much greater quantities. As such, we...
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Gaming enthusiasts understand the impact that a proper gaming mouse can have on their performance. Whether it be for fast flick-shots in CS:GO or for programming macros in MOBAs, having a gaming mouse tailored to your needs is an absolute necessity. For this review, we compared three newer mid-range gaming mice from a few top PC accessory brands: the Corsair Sabre RGB, SteelSeries Rival 500, and the G.Skill RIPJAWS MX780. It is important to note that there are different factors that could determine the way a user performs with each mouse. That being said, this review will act as a specification and use case comparison, with some analysis on what gaming styles and play types each mouse might...
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Store shelves are packed with fresh pencils, pens, and backpacks. Kids are begging their parents for new clothes and kicks. And teachers are frantically organizing their classrooms in the last few days of summer. It is that time of year again -- back-to-school season is upon us, like it or not. If you are looking to pick up some new tech gear for you or a loved one for the impending school year, but do not want to do all of the homework necessary to find that perfect product, do not sweat it, we have got you covered. This is Hot Hardware's personal study guide to help you choose the perfect laptop, tablet, 2-in-1, desktop, gadget, or accessory. Think of it as the "cliffs notes" for tech shoppers... ...
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In a broad sense, there are two types of keyboards in this world—those that use mechanical key switches and those that don't. If that sounds like something a keyboard snob would say, so be it, this editor stands guilty as charged, and happily so. We can accept that not everyone will find just cause to spend a premium on a mechanical plank, but one thing we'll never concede is that even the best membrane keyboards are on equal footing as those with mechanical key switches. Stick bamboo under our fingernails (not really) or subject us to a marathon of Matthew McConaughey movies (dear God no!), such blasphemy will never leave our lips. Ah, but you probably know this already, hence why you're here...
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Wireless routers are going through somewhat of a renaissance right now, thanks to the arrival of the 802.11ac standard that is "three times as fast as wireless-N" and the proliferation of Internet-connected devices in our homes and pockets. Whereas before we merely had a handful of laptops and PCs connected to the internet at various times, we now have homes with many devices connected all the time, including our phones, tablets, computers, smart televisions, game consoles, and smart home devices. Though wireless N wasn't bad at the time, it's simply not ideal when dozens of devices are connected at the same time, and certainly not in a larger home or office. That's where 802.11ac comes in, as...
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When you're on the path to becoming a power user, you begin to notice certain things that the average person might not. One of those is the difference between typing on a sweet mechanical keyboard with luxurious key action versus pounding away on a run-of-the-mill squishy plank that relies on mushy membranes to register your keystrokes. The difference may seem subtle to the uninitiated, though even casual typists can recognize that there's something inherently superior about typing on a mechanical keyboard, even if they can't pinpoint what exactly it is. Of course, we know it's the mechanical key switches that are responsible for elevating the typing experience. These are better than the...
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Cloud-based storage solutions are all the rage these days, but if you don't want to trust your files to a third-party data center and deal with the risk of hacker attacks and unexpected downtime, maintaining your own centralized storage platform is the way to go. This is where network attached storage (NAS) devices come into play. With hard drive prices as cheap as they are, owning your own NAS box is a totally viable option for wrangling your data, automating backup routines, and serving up files to a growing number of connected devices, including tablets, notebooks, smartphones, game consoles, set-top boxes, and more. Plus, there are no monthly or annual subscription fees to deal with....
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Cloud-based storage solutions are all the rage these days, but if you don't want to trust your files to a third-party data center and deal with the risk of hacker attacks and unexpected downtime, maintaining your own centralized storage platform is the way to go. This is where network attached storage (NAS) devices come into play. With hard drive prices as cheap as they are, owning your own NAS box is a totally viable option for wrangling your data, automating backup routines, and serving up files to a growing number of connected devices, including tablets, notebooks, smartphones, game consoles, set-top boxes, and more. Plus, there are no monthly or annual subscription fees to deal with....
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Intel’s X58 chipset made for great platform performance, and even though the chip maker has unleashed many more chipsets since the X58 came out, there hasn’t been a true successor in the high-end of their product line-up (not even the Z68 chipset) until now. The X79 chipset looks to pick up the X58’s poll position, so we decided to bench test a few motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, and Gigabyte to see how Intel's new flagship performs....
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It’s been a while since our last case roundup--a long while, actually--so it’s high time we did another. We take a look at a slew of (mostly) mid tower cases on the following pages, including the Antec Eleven Hundred, the Corsair Carbide 400R and 500R, the NZXT Source 220, and Thermaltake Chaser MK-I, each designed for a slightly different consumer. Every case in this roundup has strengths, weaknesses, and features that the others may not have, although each also has its own value proposition. If a case is flashy and feature-laden, in general, it will come with a higher price tag as well. If it’s more stripped-down, it'll generally costs less. If a case is targeted as an attention...
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It’s been a while since our last case roundup--a long while, actually--so it’s high time we did another. We take a look at a slew of (mostly) mid tower cases on the following pages, each designed for a slightly different consumer. Every case in this roundup has strengths, weaknesses, and features that the others may not have, although each also has its own value proposition. If a case is flashy and feature-laden, in general, it will come with a higher price tag as well. If it’s more stripped-down, it'll generally costs less. If a case is targeted as an attention getter, it should do so with swagger, but if it’s trying to keep a low profile, in turn it...
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We pinged three system builders -- Dell, Hewlett Packard, and iBuyPower -- and asked each one to send us a back-to-school PC equally suited for work and play (read: Mainstream). What we're looking for is a flexible configuration that's able to put its nose to the grindstone during the week to tackle multimedia projects, whether they be for school or for work, yet capable of running wild on the weekends with sufficient pixel pushing power to satisfy our jones for blowing something (or someone) up, in the virtual world, of course. Our request leaves a lot up for interpretation, and wouldn't you know it, each vendor took a different path towards the same goal, yet they all chose Intel's Sandy Bridge...
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Alice Cooper sang it wrong, school isn't out forever; with Labor Day in the rear view mirror, school is back in session. That means having to stock up on supplies and investing in essential items to get through the school year; like beer, condoms, and a new PC. You're on your own with the first two, but you've come to the right place for guidance on a new system. We pinged three system builders -- Dell, Hewlett Packard, and iBuyPower -- and asked each one to send us a back-to-school PC equally suited for work and play (read: Mainstream). What we're looking for is a flexible configuration that's able to put its nose to the grindstone during the week to tackle multimedia projects, whether...
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Video: HIS Radeon HD 6850 Review by Ultimate Hardware Motherboards and Chipsets: Llano motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI @ The Tech Report Biostar TZ68A+ LGA1155 @ techPowerUp ASUS F1A75-M Pro AMD APU Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews Processors: AMD A8-3850 Llano APU Review @ OCC TechwareLabs Review: AMD Llano A8-3850 APU AMD A8-3850 Lllano @ PureOverclock AMD A8-3850 2.9GHz Llano APU Review @ Legit Reviews AMD's A8-3850 Fusion APU @ The Tech Report Memory and Storage: Icy Dock MB982SPR-2S Review @ Vortez Patriot Wildfire 120GB Solid State Drive RAID Report @ Tweaktown Power: Legion Hardware - (OCZ ZX Series 850w, 1000w and 1250w) Systems: Asus K53SV-A1 Review @ TechReviewSource.com...
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Some might say that there has never been a better time to be a PC enthusiast. Compelling new products fighting for our attention abound, as the computer hardware scene is bursting at the seams with upgrade options. For example, it wasn't long ago that AMD launched the world's first DX11 videocard and now the company features a full lineup of products at a wide variety of price points. NVIDIA's answer to the Radeon HD 5000 series has just arrived as well, and the battle for dominance in the graphics market is as fierce as ever. SSDs are also becoming increasingly more affordable, while the release of SATA 6Gbps opens the door to a new generation of faster drives. Equally important,...
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Some might say that there has never been a better time to be a PC enthusiast. Compelling new products fighting for our attention abound, as the computer hardware scene is bursting at the seams with upgrade options. For example, it wasn't long ago that AMD launched the world's first DX11 videocard and now the company features a full lineup of products at a wide variety of price points. NVIDIA's answer to the Radeon HD 5000 series has just arrived as well, and the battle for dominance in the graphics market is as fierce as ever. SSDs are also becoming increasingly more affordable, while the release of SATA 6Gbps opens the door to a new generation of faster drives. Equally important,...
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NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 285 about three months ago, and in our launch article, we found it to be a very strong product. As you are no doubt aware, the GTX 285 is a replacement for the GTX 280. The GT200B GPU at the heart of the GTX 285 is nearly identical to the GTX 280's GT200 GPU. The most significant difference between the two GPUs is that the GT200B is manufactured using a 55nm fabrication process while the GT200 is built on a 65nm process. We take our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 coverage further here as we round up three factory-overclocked cards and pit them against each other. As enthusiasts, we think overclocks are great, but factory provided overclocks covered under warranty are even...
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There's quite a lot of variance in DDR3 modules today, which can certainly be overwhelming for potential new buyers. While the Core i7 processor is officially rated to run at only DDR3-1066 speeds, modules that can run at DDR3-2000 or even higher are available for the Core i7, and many new motherboards support speeds even greater than these. There is also the introduction of huge 12 GB (6 x 2 GB modules) capacity kits to consider, and we have latencies in the CAS 7 to CAS 9 range, all of which affect pricing of these various modules kits dramatically. Today, we're going to look at some of these new kits and see if we can break down what memory-related aspects users should look for when buying...
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Video: Crysis: Warhead Gameplay Perf and IQ @ [H] PowerColor HD 4870 @ TechwareLabs Diamond ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 @ TestFreaks.com Motherboards and Chipsets: ASUS P6TDeluxe X58 Motherboard Preview @ OC3D ASUS P6T Deluxe X58 Express Motherboard (OC Palm Edition) @ TechARP Memory and Storage: Thermaltake Blacx Docking Station N0028USU @ Benchmark Reviews Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3-1333 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit @ ThinkComputers Cases, Cooling, and Misc.: Ibuypower IBP-Z001 Liquid Cooling System @ FrostyTech Cooler Master GeminII S Review @ OCC Apevia X-Sniper G Type Case Review @ HardwareLogic Vantec Aeroflow FX92/FX120 HDT CPU Coolers Review @ Virtual-Hideout Antec Veris Multimedia...
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Stop us if you've heard this one before: In this article we will be looking at the latest high-end desktop chipset from Intel, featuring support for DDR2 and DDR3 memory, support for 45nm dual- and quad-core processors, and PCI Express 2.0 connectivity with 16 lanes devoted to each PEG slot and compatibility with ATI's CrossFire technology. If it all sounds familiar, it's because the Intel X48 Express Chipset that's used on the three boards we'll be looking at here is almost exactly the same as the X38 Express that preceded it a few months back. In fact, if we take a gander at the chipset block diagram below, the only glaring addition would be official...
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We're writing to let you know that we have just posted a new article at HotHardware in which we evaluate the features and performance of three X48-based motherboards. The first motherboard comes from ASUS, and is a member of the gamer-oriented Republic of Gamers series, which we have taken a few looks at in the past. We've been mostly impressed by what they've offered in this series, and expect no less with the Rampage Formula. Next up is the X48T-A from ECS. We can honestly say that we haven't seen much from ECS in the past couple of years in the enthusiast segment, so we aren't exactly sure what to expect, but if early impressions mean anything, this "Black Series" board means business. Finally,...
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Solid State Drive technology is set to turn the storage industry on its ear; there is little doubt of this. When you consider the intrinsic benefits of anything built on solid state technology versus anything mechanical, it doesn't take a degree in physics to understand the obvious advantages. On the following pages, we thought we'd level-set the features, performance and pricing landscape for you with respect to the current state of SSDs. Today, we have a look at four different SSD offerings, two from OCZ, one from Mtron and another from Super Talent. Is a Solid State Disk in your future? We'll try to help you answer that question in this full performance evaluation...
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